The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

When Mount Putuo Tourism Development Co. announced its plans last Saturday for launching an initial public offering in two years, it immediately set off a wave of doubt and criticism among the Chinese public. The state-owned company operates tourist facilities around Mount Putuo, which is located in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province and is one of the most famous Buddhist mountains in China. The local government hailed the plan to sell company shares to the public a “major policy decision” to promote local tourism and culture. Yet for now, the reputation of Mount Putuo appears tarnished by the perceived commercialization of Buddhism.

Mount Putuo has a Buddhist heritage that can be traced to the Tang Dynasty and is best known as a place of worship for Lotus Sutra, a copper statue of which stands 18 meters tall near the southern tip of the mountain. Each year millions of tourists and pilgrims visit the area, with the volume peaking at 35,500 people a day during popular tourism seasons.

Statue of Lotus Sutra on Mount Putuo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The result of such popularity is an annual revenue of at least $310 million. Through the public offering, which Mount Putuo Tourism Development Co. has been preparing for three years, some $118 million is expected to be raised to improve the local infrastructure and the environment. The company’s assets include only those in “competitive fields” such as public transportation, the cableway and souvenir sales. Religious sites are not part of the package, according to the company’s general manager, Mao Jiantao, who is also the vice party secretary of the Mount Putuo Scenic Area Administrative Committee, the local government agency that oversees the overall management of Mount Putuo.

Yet the Chinese public is not persuaded by the proclaimed separation of religion and business, since the profitability of the tourism business is inevitably tied to Putuo’s attraction as a religious site.
The public is concerned that using religion to “round up money” is now becoming a general trend, as companies managing other famous Buddhist mountains, such as Mount Wutai and Mount Jiuhua, have also been planning IPOs. In fact, Emei Shan Tourism Co., which provides travel products and services in the Buddhist Mount Emei area, listed 33% of its shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as early as 1997. From 1997 to 2011, the company’s net income increased from $6 million to $34 million.

From a management point of view, however, an IPO may not be a bad idea at all, according to Laura Huggins, director of outreach at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana near Yellowstone National Park. She points out that instilling some private-sector ownership into the government-owned Mount Putuo Tourism Development Co. should make it operate “more efficiently and with an even greater incentive to protect Buddhist temples,” because “without the temples protected the tourist draw will likely diminish over time.” She notes that based on the U.S. experience, private-sector management of public forests and parks “provides consistent, quality stewardship as well as more customer service,” in comparison with state or local government management.

Infrastructure and service investment by Emei Shan Tourism Co. has indeed increased since its IPO in 1997. The funds raised supported the construction of roads and cableways, a three-star hotel at the top of Mount Emei, a hot spring resort and equipment for providing water and electricity high up on the mountain.